GNAT IMAGO. 65 



air, the insect's desires seem to have grown aerian. While a 

 noon-day sun is warm upon the water (as yet his native ele- 

 ment), he rises to the surface and above it, elevating both head 

 and shoulders, as if gasping for the new enjoyments which 

 await him. His breast swells (as it were) with the sweet antici- 

 pation, his confining corselet bursts, and the head, not that 

 which has played its part on the stage of being now about to 

 close, but another, all plumed and decorated for a more bril- 

 liant theatre, emerges through the rent, followed by the 

 shoulders and the filmy wings which are to play upon the 



air. - But have a care, my little debutant ! thou art yet 



upon the water ; an unlucky somerset would wet thy still soft 

 and drooping pinions, and render them unfit for flight. Now 

 is thy critical moment hold thee steady lose not thy per- 

 pendicular, or But why fear we for the little mariner ? 



He who clothes the lily and feeds the sparrow, has provided 

 him support in this, his point of peril. The stiff covering of 

 his recent form, from which he is struggling to escape, now 

 serves him as a life-boat the second to which he will owe 

 his safety. His upright body forms its mast as well as sail, 

 and in the breeze now rippling the water, he is wafted rapidly 

 along. He will assuredly be capsized from press of sail. But 

 see, he has acquired by this time other helps to aid his self- 

 preserving efforts. His slender legs (hitherto hung pendant) 

 now feel for and find the surface of the pool. His boat is left 

 behind arid, still endowed with one aquatic power, he stands a 



